Fuel cell systems, as they can be used, for example, in motor vehicles, comprise at least one fuel cell and at least one reformer, whose reformate gas is used as an anode gas in the fuel cell.
In the state in which they are switched on, such fuel cell systems generate electric current, which can be made available to electric users, for example, of a vehicle. Essential components of the fuel cell system, for example, the reformer and the fuel cell, operate at a comparatively high temperature level during the operation. Cold start of the fuel cell system, i.e., running up the power of the fuel cell system from an ambient temperature, is associated with high thermal and chemical loads on the individual components of the fuel cell system. To keep such loads and an accompanying shortening of the service life of the system as low as possible, gentle and correspondingly lengthy cold start procedures can be carried out. A gentle cold start may require, for example, several hours. Such lengthy switch-on procedures are, however, usually of no interest for applications in vehicles.